


Snow Day

by ButterfliesAndPenguins



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Smooching, Snow Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-14 17:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1274929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterfliesAndPenguins/pseuds/ButterfliesAndPenguins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SO IT’S SNOWING HERE AND IT NEVER SNOWS HERE AND I WAS SO EXCITED SO GUESS WHAT I DID I stayed inside and wrote snowy Reigisa smoochies here goes.</p><p>No warnings except for cheese, so if you are lactose intolerant, it’s okay, that’s just a metaphor.</p><p>sorry about the lame title</p><p>_____________________________________________________________________________________</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow Day

 

 

"Hurry up, Rei, It's gonna melt before you find the _perfect_ pair of gloves."

"But I'll require sleek enough gloves," Rei stamped his boots onto his heels securely, "in order to _obliterate you_ with my superior snowball technique."

Nagisa threw open the front door of their flat.

"Ohhhhhhh myyyy goooooood LOOOOOOOOOOOOOK AAAAAAAAT AAAAAALLLLLL OF IIIIIT!!!!" he yanked Rei out the door by the arm just as he, luckily, had swiped the proper purple pair. Nagisa was too ecstatic to notice the evil grin behind his glasses.

The soft drizzle of snow that had been the perfect excuse to curl up on the couch all night must have smuggled in a blizzard while they slept. The large flakes that were falling now looked like dollops of frosting, and Rei imagined their "plop" when hitting the ground so vividly he almost thought he heard it.

"Whoa, whoa," Nagisa halted with an exaggerated gesture. He crouched excitedly to examine something.

"What is it?" Rei took a step toward him, then froze, noticing his boyfriend's unusually stiff posture. Rei was onto his schemes by _now_ in their time together. He carefully slipped his fingers under a scoop of powder for ammunition.

"TOO LATE!" There was a flash of knit wear and then something burning down the back of his neck. "That's what you get for exposing your _weak spot!"_

"HNNG!" Rei seized as he felt the snowball slop down his back. He flinched in several directions, scrambling to reach in after it.

"That is _hardly_ a civilized way to initiate a snowball fight!" he shouted, flinging the offending first shot fired from underneath his shirt. "You are NO gentleman, sir."

"You're just no match for my guerilla tactics," his opponent flashed a grin from beneath the earflaps of his woolen hat. "Besides, we both know _you're_ the gentleman of the two of us. You've got to make noble sacrifices, you know. That's just how it works!"

"It is, is it?" Rei took the opportunity to shape his snowy bullet to the perfect density while Nagisa bantered.

"Of course it is," he was shuffling his boots suspiciously. "You would never let my _honor_ be called into question now, would you?"

"Oh," Rei secured his glasses confidently, "I'll show you just how it works."

Nagisa whooped as Rei took aim and sent his weapon flying. It burst on the back of Nagisa's hood with a _thud_ , knocking a laugh from his chest. Rei congratulated himself on his calculation of trajectory while Nagisa sent a hastily-formed lump flying, grazing his knee.

"Is that the best you can do?" Rei called, but Nagisa's attention was already diverted to the neighbors' barking dog behind the fence.

"Hi, Pon-Pon!" Nagisa grinned while the dog yelped, leaping excitedly.

Nagisa mirrored his jumps and flopped down in the deep snow beside the fence, laughing loudly. He was always looking for an excuse to be happy if he could find one, but Rei knew he was especially relieved to have today to themselves, especially after being blown from one part-time job to the next through their various hazards of starting out in life. Nagisa deserved today. He tumbled through the snow out of sight, suddenly appearing over the white dunes as just a bright knit hat.

"It's like ten feet deep over here!"

"Mmhmm," Rei played along, biting back his estimation of the snow's actual depth at about 64 centimeters.

As Rei caught up with the bobbing yarn puff, he sputtered a laugh, seeing Nagisa's hilarious attempts at swimming breast stroke through the snow.

"It's not as fast through frozen water . . ." he lamented.

With a stab of regret, Rei realized they hadn't seen a pool in _months_ , probably not since the last time they'd gotten the old team back together for a swim in July. He'd have to remedy that, Rei told himself. Just as soon as they both got another free day together . . . if ever.

Nagisa bumped him from his thought spiral by appearing before him, shuffling through the deep drifts. A mound was rising at his knees as he carved a deep slug trail behind him. He brightened.

"Let's go for a walk," he begged, taking Rei's gloved hand. "We haven't done that in ages around here!"

Rei blinked a smile back onto his lips. "But where's the path? You can't even see where the street begins and ends anymore," he nodded in amusement toward where the asphalt used to lie, now covered in a featureless expanse of snow, like an unadorned wedding cake.

"We'll make one, then," Nagisa tugged his arm and glanced back at him adoringly, shaking the powder from his knees.

"Perfect," Rei smiled, following his lead.

The two of them picked out a back route through the park and down the short walk to the edge of town. The fields were rolled out before them with barely enough visible fence left to divide them, like stitching on the squares of a white quilt. Rei glanced upward and blinked at the falling snow, watching the flakes swirl until he couldn't make out which direction they were headed anymore. Nagisa caught some on his tongue between pauses in his explanations of stories he had yet to catch Rei up on.           

Rei listened wistfully to Nagisa's chatter, punctuated by bursts of frozen breath from his flushed lips. It was a challenge to pick up his disconnected strings of thought, but Rei rarely minded leaving most of the talking to him. Nagisa blurted something about Makoto's recent "girl trouble", which, he appraised, was only a matter of Makoto's own oblivious nature. Rei withheld his careful opinions for today, too overjoyed that they were spending time just as a couple again. It had been too long since they'd just walked together, or done something this wonderful and unimportant, but the unusually deep snow had cancelled public bus routes and gotten them both out of work and class for the day. He breathed the sharp wind and silently thanked the still-falling snow.

            The thick flakes were sinking deliberately through the air. Rei was captivated by a few in particular that feathered Nagisa's long eyelashes. He curled his own fingers gently round their frozen counterparts. The fields were all spread indiscriminately white before them, horizons blurring into the smoky-white clouds. It might have looked altogether monochrome, too ugly and plain, were it not for the endearingly bright flurry of colors beside him. For now, Rei thought, it was utterly beautiful.

Rei leaned his chin toward the reddened cheek beside him, intending to cover it with a soft kiss.

            The smaller fingers jerked from his loose grip.

"Look!" Nagisa laughed, pointing toward a patch of lumps in one field. "Oh my gosh, Rei, they look like snow cones, look."

Several pale lumps were stirring lazily in the distance. They were sheep, he realized, doubly blanketed by their winter wool and topped with quilts of snow. It was absurd how little they seemed to mind. Rei laughed.

Nagisa's private smile didn't escape his notice. He always appeared to secretly covet Rei's laughter, and Rei didn't mind one bit.

They continued their loop through the edge of town, the snow whispering voicelessly beneath their boots. Neither of them really had optimal snow apparel, so they'd had to settle for several layers of sweaters and jackets, and Rei had worn his old track pants. Nagisa had still managed to find a knit hat in the shape of a penguin head, though. Even the ear flaps were incorporated into the design to resemble wings. Rei mused embarrassingly to himself that he was glad his little bird was flightless, otherwise he might leave for good.

As the turned back in view of their apartment building, downy lumps were raining down with greater frequency. One stuck to Rei's cheek, and Nagisa leaned in to kiss it off before it could melt. Rei knew the numb tingle left on his face was not from the snow. More flakes gathered on the tip of his nose, and Nagisa pressed his lips to them, too. The lenses in Rei's glasses clouded with their two sets of foggy breaths.

"You know," the boy squinted, eyes bright with mock concentration, "there's something I just can't figure out."

"What's that?" Rei mumbled contentedly as Nagisa's finger traced his collar.            

His mouth hovered dangerously close to Rei's. "How you can be so brilliant, and _so_ perfect . . . " he stopped just short of his lips, " . . . and still not see this coming."

Rei knew his horrible fate before he saw it playing out in slow motion, and was powerless to stop it. The second snowball was jammed down his sweater in a blinding flash of cold, and a yelp tugged itself from Rei's throat. Nagisa cackled, disappearing behind him.

" _Nnnnaaaa-giii-saaaaa!!"_

Turning tail and escaping, Nagisa's laughter rang off the neighborhood fences and snow-flocked trees, sending a pair of birds flying off in separate directions. He bounded over knee-deep snow banks, hurdling them gracefully. Rei chased after him, landing carefully in the already-formed tracks so as to increase speed by minimizing resistance. His substantial experience in measured jumping gave him the advantage in this situation, and he caught up with the offender in no time. Nagisa was waiting, however, and showered them both with arms full of loose powder. Rei could feel it melting on his hair and stepped back for a wind-up, letting his leg swing around to send his own burst of white dust at his opponent. Nagisa waded backwards too quickly and lose his balance, disappearing entirely.

Rei wasted no time in packing a cannonball easily the size of his head. Nagisa pulled himself up and stumbled toward Rei, not giving him the time to pack it densely enough for distance accuracy. He laughed raggedly and continued forward, relentless. Panicking, Rei lobbed the huge snowball and missed spectacularly, leaving a puff of powder in the closing gap between them.            

" _Reeeeiii-chaaan,"_ Nagisa growled like some monster from the campy horror movies loved so much. He reached out for Rei's shoulders.

Rei allowed himself to be captured and shoved into the ground with a soft "floompf", but not without pulling Nagisa's scarf, taking him down too.           

Nagisa's eyes positively glowed above him as he pushed himself up. He glanced at the surrounding white walls they had sunken into. "Hey, look," he indicated by pressing his nose to Rei's, "a snow angel."

Rei rolled his eyes and couldn't help smiling until their two smiles met and gave way, melting into one another. He rose up to meet Nagisa's kiss and savored the surprising warmth that still floated behind his lips. Nagisa's frozen nose slipped against Rei's cheek like a glass marble and Rei breathed a laugh. He watched their smoky breath hang between them through half-closed eyes stinging with cold. Rei felt icicle fingers slide along his ears beneath his hat and he shivered, pulling Nagisa in deeper.

The world spun more quickly. The numbness in his toes began to seep into Rei's dizzy mind as he was kissed and kissed and kissed. He thought of the double-coated sheep, and wondered how long until the two of them would also share a second coat of snow. Rei didn't think he would mind, either. Nagisa sniffled between breaths; the frigid air still made their noses run. The dampness left behind when their mouths shifted threatened to freeze immediately, and Rei was quick to return warmth to Nagisa's lips over and over. All sound was eerily deadened inside their pocket of indented snow drifts, like the earth had vanished around them, and Rei slid farther in gratefully. A corner of his sweater came untucked, scraping ground-up snow against his back and he inhaled sharply. The two of them couldn't seem to decide what to do with both of their legs, scattering scuffs of powder behind them. Rei sensed Nagisa was struggling for air, but he purposely drew out the last few moments, stopping time just before they parted.

The lower half of Rei's vision was blurred beneath the red stripe of his skewed glasses frames, but he could still see Nagisa's cherry nose and the quick rise and fall of his bobbing shoulders. Rei had to peel his damp bangs back from the glasses as he reset them on the bridge of his nose. Nagisa swiped a puffy sleeve over his chin, only succeeding in caking more snow along his jaw. Rei laughed with a hint of mischief and sniffed against the cold.

"You're too perfect to be real." He brushed away the snow clinging to the reddened cheek before him and Nagisa continued panting, still spellbound. "The laws of probability stand against you."

Nagisa just kept generating puffs of mist from his mouth, sniffing again, pupils dilated almost to maximum.

"I can't believe how lucky I am," Rei continued with measured pacing, sliding a gloved hand down the small of Nagisa's back, "that you've been placed in my life . . . exactly . . . where I needed you to be."

A frown twitched tragically late over Nagisa's brow as Rei moved with swift and deadly accuracy, jamming his perfectly powdery snowball straight down the back of Nagisa's jeans. Bullseye.

The large eyes widened and his jaw sunk as the horror of Rei's betrayal washed over him in slow motion. Rei's manic grin of triumph might have been the thing that finally repelled him enough to spring back and shriek. Scrambling back to admire his handiwork, Rei couldn't hold back an evil laugh.

"Rei, you— you just— how could you . . . REI-CHAAAAN!!"

Nagisa's frantic, jerking dance was trophy enough for Rei's victory. He fixed his glasses in satisfaction he watched Nagisa clawing at his soaked skinny jeans. Rei knew he would be paid back in full soon enough, but as far as he was concerned, he had won the war through flawless execution and strategy.

" _You . . ._ " Nagisa seethed, unable to mask the twitch of a smile.

"I?" Rei draped a palm over his chest innocently. "I merely recognized the opportunity of time and place, seizing my chance. It was you who presented me with it."

" _You,_ " Nagisa continued, finally shaking the snow from his pants and sniffing, cheeks glowing. "You."

"I?" Rei repeated, beginning to sweat beneath his half-dozen layers, despite his slapped-cold cheeks.

" _You._ " Nagisa finished gently, reaching up to place a harsh kiss on his mouth. Rei was the one left breathless this time.

 The chill had settled into their skin by now, and Rei's numb fingers began to sting.

Nagisa sniffed in vain as his nose ran mercilessly, setting his upper lip glistening.

Rei winced, feeling his own sinuses reciprocate. "Ugh. No more kisses until we get inside."

"I think we're out of tissues . . ." Nagisa pouted. "I . . . might have used them all last time I got sick."

Rei lurched in mid-step, shuddering at the mucus pooling beneath his nostrils and cursing the low barometric pressure. His mouth twitched. " _How could you not—"_

"Pfft, just kidding," Nagisa shoved him, stumbling towards the apartment. "You're too fun not to rile up."

Rei shivered and frowned, focusing self-consciously on how soaked his pants and gloves were.

"Come on, let's go inside," Nagisa squeezed an arm around his waist. "I'm sure we can find _something_ to warm us up."

Rei was gently pulled from his own swirling thoughts to the inexplicable glow Nagisa gave him, no matter what was going on in his own head. "I love you," he found himself saying quietly, for no particular reason. He'd spoken that particular string of words to him a thousand times, but he always meant them as much as he had the very first time.

Nagisa chuckled quietly. He pressed his cold, sticky face into Rei's cheek and left him a slippery kiss, must to Rei's chagrin.

"Well that's good, because I love you, too."

Rei protested above Nagisa's giggle as they stamped through the un-shoveled walk toward the door, leaving behind their sporadic trail of evidence in the fresh snow.


End file.
